Larry, The palm nailer is just helpful when you need to hammer from inside close quarters and don't have enough room to swing a hammer. Some of the work on this tank had to be hammered from inside with the dolly on the outside. Most of it was done the other way, dolly inside and hammer from outside.

I'm making progress on the tank. I made two steel rings from 3/16" plate and drilled bolt holes in them before installing them on the inside of each of the holes. I used panel bond to hold them in place and seal them. Then I riveted them in to hold them until the panel bond cures. The other holes in the plates are for screws that will hold the pump and level sensor. The green O rings go on first, then the pump and sensor, then the retaining rings are bolted on.

__________________
Jack

Set a Goal So Big That You Can't Achieve It Until You Grow Into The Person That Can.

I have the fab work on the tank finished. On the far left is the new filler neck, then the level sending unit, on the far right is the pump. Below, in the lower middle is the original filler neck. I'm not going to block that off. I'll need it to mount a remote canister inside the trunk to house the vapor recovery separator.
On the CTS, that was mounted in a raised area at the rear of the tank. On this tank, there is no way to make a raised area to keep the separator out of the gasoline so I'll add the remote canister.

The tank is mounted, wired and plumbed. I need to mount a filler tube so it comes up to the left tail light opening.

__________________
Jack

Set a Goal So Big That You Can't Achieve It Until You Grow Into The Person That Can.

I ordered an aluminum canister for the vapor recovery system on the gas tank, so I'll take a break on that til it gets here. In the meantime, I need to get the air cleaner box to fit in here somewhere. It's unnessecarily huge and bulky but I want to keep as much of the OEM parts as possible. The MAF sensor is in this box also. I need to trim it down to size so here's one last lesson in automotive plastics.
There are about a dozen types of plastic used on cars and they all have their qualities and shortcomings. Most of what you'll find under the hood or in utility service will be either PP, ABS, PE, or PC.
PP is polyproylene. That's what the air cleaner box is made of. It's common to see it in components that need to be rigid and temperature resistant. It has similar properties to PE Polyethylene. They can very easily be cut and cleanly welded with heat. No cement required.
I set the finished pieces back together so you can see the original size. It was about 13" tall.
Also, any plastic part will have an ID stamp telling you what the material is. In this case you can see the "PP" circled.

The finished part below is a little less than 7" tall now. I welded inside and out and used some filler. You can buy this filler rod but I just use a box knife to shave a thin strip from the edge of some scrap material and use that to fill.
You can see in the close up that the weld is built up. At this point, if the part would be seen in the engine bay, you could file and sand this smooth, then go over the welds with a heat gun to smooth and gloss the surface.

I used this Weller wood burner/Hobby iron to do the welding. It comes will an assortment of tips. The one that is still in the iron is the one I used to weld. The only advantage to the wood burner over the soldering iron is that the wood burner has a shorter stem which makes it easier to control.

__________________
Jack

Set a Goal So Big That You Can't Achieve It Until You Grow Into The Person That Can.

I had a discussion on air intakes with an expert in engine installations. He had shown me a intake design or configuration that baffled me. Over the next hour or so, I received a master's level seminar in intake design.

Won't go into detail but controlling the flow through the system to maintain flow rate, without significant compromise and control of intake noise was the critical issue.

For our interests, certainly make it work, but consider (measure?) twice before cutting once.

Jack, you're at the top of the game! Appreciate the effort and sacrifice of your thread! Good Man!

Marc, thanks for the input. I probably shouldn't have described the box as "unnessecarily huge and bulky". It's just huge and bulky. I'm no engineer but I'm familiar with the reasons for the size and shapes of these air cleaner boxes. I've test run late model cars with the boxes open and you can hear just about everything going on inside the engine, even the intake valves closing. The odd looking shapes help dampen surging and pulsing so the MAF sensor isn't going nuts trying to measure volume. The internal ribs and bends direct air flow and help stop telegraphing noises.
Most of what I'm doing here in merging old with new involves compromise. I have to locate this boxall the way up front just above the grill opening. I didn't want any of it showing through the grill as seen from the front. I never thought I would have so much trouble with space, but with all the CTS systems and plumbing, wiring, bells and whistles, plus the gigantic wheel tubs eating up a big chunk of my underhood real estate, it's become a challenge. It's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole when there isn't even room for a round peg.
There will probably be some hissing or suction noise audible from the front of the car. If it's too anoying, I'll give it a second go.

__________________
Jack

Set a Goal So Big That You Can't Achieve It Until You Grow Into The Person That Can.

Jack, You are classically humble which is a tribute to your character.

Resolving those issues to a level matching the work and expertise shown on your build thread reportedly takes equipment costing RBB (Really Big Bucks!) as the forces and factors one has to deal with are very small - but unfortunately, like the mouse that roared, makes lots of noise!

For the rest of us "lessor mortals" I wouldn't get too stressed if you can resolve an irritating noise of undeterminable origin!

I have enough of the front end together to make a new lower valance. This will go from the core support, below the grill and forward to the bumper. I waited until I had the fender liners in so I could fit the valance to them at the outer ends.
This first half goes from the core support forward to the grill. I am making this valance in two pieces because it will need a 1" step up where the lower part of the grille will bolt in. The front half of the valance will be 1" higher than the rear half in order to conceal the grill mounting bolts.
I did all the bending on the bead roller. I won't weld up the flanges till I make the front half and fit them both into the car.

__________________
Jack

Set a Goal So Big That You Can't Achieve It Until You Grow Into The Person That Can.